Samak Tajen (p. 371)

Samak Tajen is Lebanese Baked Fish with Tahini, and it also has pine nuts in it, which I am semi-obsessed with. As per usual, I didn't read the recipe fully before starting to cook, so I had to kind of speed through some processes, such as marinating the fish.

Place your fish fillets (I used tilapia) into a baking dish, and pour the marinade over them, a mixture of lemon juice, salt and pepper, and cumin. Make sure all sides of the fish get coated, and then set the fish aside. The recipe calls for them to marinate for a couple of hours, but mine only had about an hour. Oh well.

Sauté pine nuts in olive oil until they are golden brown and then remove them with a slotted spoon. Sauté a thinly sliced onion in the same olive oil until it is very soft and beginning to brown. Mix tahini with water slowly until it thickens and then mix it throughly with the onions, pine nuts, and garlic.

Pour this sauce over the fish and cook for about 40 minutes, or until the sauce is slightly browned.

This was really good! The tahini flavors baked into the fish and were delicious, and I love that the sauce became a crust around the tilapia instead of something more liquid-y. I would definitely make this one again, and wouldn't change a thing (except I'd probably marinate it for the correct amount of time.)

lemon -- $.89

tilapia -- $9.04

onion -- $1.08

Total Cost of Samak Tajen: $11.01